"London Portrait Rooms, Dunedin", ca. 1880-1882(The shortened - walking? - skirt leads me to believe that this photograph was taken in the early 1880s. Note the rows of tiny frills at the bottom of the skirt. This was a highly fashionable feature at the time.)

NEW - La Mode Illustree, 1880

"B. Scott & Son - Carlisle", 1881(This photograph is addressed on the back "To Dear Alice ... Oct 14-81". This young lady's costume "borrows" a double-breasted overcoat from the male wardrobe. These kinds of borrowings increased in the late-Victorian era, as women tried to find a practical alternative to the frills and furbelows of feminine fashion.)

NEW - Estacao, 1881

Journal des Demoiselles, 1881

Weigel's Journal of Fashion, 1881 (l.) and 1882 (r.)

"Mother was a regular subscriber to 'Madame Weigel's Fashion Journal'. It was an 'elegancy' to which she clung through the leanest lean years. It was one of the touches of her upbringing that set her above the other women to whose company she was reduced at Stillwater. Mother always dressed herself and us by Madame W's paper patterns, which were renowned for their accuracy and style. Mother was equally capable in executing them and we were always turned out as no others were. I can remember Stella S. trying to deprecate Linda [Franklin] as a fashion plate because she was so lovely in her perfect flounces and dainty laces."

The Diaries of Miles Franklin (edited by Paul Brunton, 2004)

"Arthur Debenham - Ryde, I.W.", ca. 1882-1883(This photograph can be dated fairly accurately, not only by the by the fact the sitter is wearing a bustle - which returned in a new form around 1882 - but by her hat, which is in a style very popular during the earlier years of the decade. Later in the 1880s fashionable hats had higher crowns and narrower brims. You'll also notice that as yet, the 1880s bustle isn't very extreme in size.)

NEW - Estacao, 1882

Cabinet photograph - no caption, ca. 1882-1883.

"Forshaw & Coles, Oxford", ca. 1883(The lady wearing this dress has retained a long, rather old fashioned, basque, and the flounced, trailing skirts of the late 1870s and early 1880s. These clothes were conservative, but not altogether out of fashion in 1883.)

"Grouzelle & Co., Royal Arcade, Melbourne", ca. 1883-1884

Myra's Journal, 1884

"Hall & Son, Brighton and Lewes", ca. 1885(The 1880s bustle in all its glory! It juts out at the base of the wearer's spine at an almost 90° angle. Notice how severely this dress is cut. Serious solid clothes for a serious solid decade.)

"Hellis & Sons, Photographers", ca. 1885

Weigel's Journal of Fashion, 1886

Journal des Demoiselles, 1888

Peterson's Magazine, 1888

Journal des Demoiselles, 1889(Not quite the 1890s yet - but these styles hint at fashions to come. The bustle has almost disappeared - for the second and last time - and the tops of the sleeves are started to puff out.)

By sheer good luck at this juncture, my young aunt Fanny, well-to-do, of fashionable tastes, recently widowed, sent me three of her coloured dresses, hoping they might come in useful. They took ages to get into, with their close-fitting bodices, endless hooks and buttons, skirts to the ankle, and a kind of gathering-up behind called a crinolette. But they fitted all right once on, and the pleasure of looking grown-up atoned for my diminished mobility. Before long I developed a technique for getting out of the everyday one; while each one of the little round buttons down the front had to be done up, the could all be released by a sudden jerk given to the bottom one."

Molly Hughes, A London Girl of the Eighties

"Hammer & Co.", 6 Rundle Street Adelaide", ca. 1889
(Very similar to the fashion plate above, especially the ultra-smart striped fabric used in the skirt of the sitter's costume.)